HOLOCAUST
DENIAL Committee for
Open Debate on the Holocaust FORMERLY the "Media Project Director" for IHR,
longtime Holocaust denier Bradley Smith
joined current IHR
leader Mark Weber in founding the Committee
for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH) in 1987.
On his Web site, Smith presents himself as an
intellectually honest gadfly with no ax to
grind. Smith works hard to create the image of a man
who wants to encourage reasonable debate among
reasonable people. His admission that "the
Hitlerian regime was antisemitic and persecuted
Jews" seems meant to show that it is intellectual
honesty, not anti-Semitism, that leads him to deny
that "the German state pursued a plan to kill all
Jews or used homicidal 'gassing chambers' for mass
murder." For many years, Smith has been at the center of
the deniers' college outreach program. He first
drew public attention when about 70 college
newspapers published his Holocaust denial ads,
which he still regularly sends to campus editors,
in the early and mid-1990s. All of these ads are
reprinted at the CODOH Web site. At first, Smith's ads featured long essays that
outlined the deniers' position, such as Mark
Weber's "The
'Jewish soap' myth." Smith's first widely
published ad stated "the figure of 6 million Jewish
deaths is an irresponsible exaggeration, and ... no
execution gas chambers existed in any camp in
Europe which was under German control." This ad
went on to note that the "purpose" of accounts of
the Holocaust is "to drum up world sympathy and
political and financial support for Jewish causes,
especially for the formation of the State of
Israel." Another early CODOH ad claimed "The
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum displays no
convincing proof whatsoever of homicidal gas
chambers." Upset about the high cost of these lengthy ads,
Smith soon realized the power of the Internet. He
began to place brief, inexpensive ads in school
papers that merely listed his Web site and E-mail
addresses. Not only did these ads cost less money,
they also hid Smith's agenda. In addition, Smith
tried to draw his readers' attention with
misleading slogans such as "Ignore the Thought
Police" and "Judge for yourself." Smith's savvy marketing technique was
tailor-made for students, many of whom are
comfortable with the Internet, predisposed against
authority, and willing to challenge received
wisdom. Students responding favorably to these
deceptive ads would realize Smith's intention to
deny the Holocaust only after visiting the CODOH
Web site, where they would receive his message
without mediation. Smith's latest ad hooks readers with a promise
of a $250,000
reward to whoever can arrange a 90-minute,
prime-time nationally televised debate about the
Holocaust between Smith and ADL. Smith readily
admits he doesn't "really expect a TV debate to
take place." This ad, like Smith's previous
efforts, is a "bait and switch," a deceptive
enticement spouting hollow promises designed to
encourage students to visit his "vast Internet
archive of revisionist scholarship and
comment." Once at the CODOH site, students are targeted
further. They are urged to distribute CODOH
leaflets on their campuses and fight what Smith
calls the "Campus Thought Police" (that is,
legitimate Holocaust historians). Also, students
are offered a set of links and asked to "choose a
major" such as "Mathematics,"
"Science,"
or "Politics."
By clicking on a "major," they are linked to
Holocaust denial articles specially tailored to
their areas of interest. Also presented is an
innocuous-sounding section titled "Hot Links to
Higher Learning," which contains links to a variety
of Holocaust denial sites; Smith classifies such
sites as "Social, Political and Historical Activism
& Commentary." On June 1, 1998, Smith added to his site another
feature aimed at students: "AnswerMan!"
Using what he believes is "hip" language that will
appeal to young Web users, "AnswerMan!" writes: From a fleet of
virtual time-travel and data storage vehicles,
referred to collectively as his Crystal Balls,
AnswerMan! ranges the breadth and depth of the
20th Century, copping knowledge shamelessly to
bring it to you...Which could mean helping you
out with a term paper, if you think about
it. Though he seeks to appear stylish, in his
answers to visitors' questions "AnswerMan!" simply
reiterates the same old lies, including the claim
that Jews deported from Polish ghettos were simply
sent to settlements "further East," not death
camps. The CODOH Web site today contains a vast amount
of Holocaust-denial information. Visitors to the
site can look for any one of over 1,000 separate
documents using one of the site's eight search
tools, such as its index of articles by subject and
its chronological list of additions. Particularly troublesome are the sections titled
"War
Crimes Trials" and "The
Tangled Web: Zionism, Stalinism, and the Holocaust
Story." "War Crimes Trials" offers articles
that attack the objectivity and legal validity of
the post-war Nuremberg Trials, where much
information about the Holocaust first became
public, and where the basic history of the genocide
was first established. "The Tangled Web" suggests
that Jews were responsible for Bolshevism in the
Soviet Union while linking Zionism to Fascism.
CODOH manages to present Jews as both International
Communist conspirators and ultra-nationalist bigots
who willingly cooperated with violent
anti-Semites. Smith also posts excerpts from his monthly print
newsletter, "Smith's Report," and urges visitors to
subscribe. Additionally, he offers the full text of
his autobiographical book, Confessions of a
Holocaust Revisionist, as well as the works of more
than 50 other Holocaust deniers, including a group
of "New Revisionist Voices." One "revisionist"
author who receives special attention is David
Irving.
OTHER
items in the latest ADL expose:
The Institute of
Historical Review (IHR)
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